The need to escape my previous life had trumped my vague unease about the Brotherhood’s operations. Now my gut twisted like it had during the interview. What had I agreed to do? Did it matter if everything I did was legal if I worked for a dirty business? Despite my inner apprehension, I had no sense the business was a cover for anything else. In fact, the shop had lots more appointments scheduled than the last place, and the quality of the operation, from ink to artists, was the best I’d ever seen. Despite the extra overhead of quality product, the shop turned a very respectable profit, according to the ledger I’d flipped through.
“Lila, come see this,” Zayn yelled from the back.
Happy for the distraction, I hurried to the workroom. Dare focused on Mark’s shoulder, inking the outline of the piece with a steady hand. A man with an ink iron always caught my attention, and I almost tasted his sexiness—spicy with a touch of sweet.
Zayn showed me the tribal pattern Dare had drawn. A complicated set of markings like the tats on The Rock’s arms—he’d made tribal artwork crazy-hot.
I flipped through the art book Zayn handed me. A Chinese-inspired dragon impressed me. Wow. The dragons chased each other in a circle, destined to be frustrated for eternity. The center held a yin and yang on backgrounds of fire and ice.
“Beautiful.” The word escaped and I clamped my mouth shut.
“Dare’s a fuckin’ artist.” Zayn smirked. “He can draw anything.”
I’d noticed the Z and D in the corners of some drawings. Dare’s art had a fantasy flair while Zayn’s was darker, sort of gothic. They were two of the most talented artists I’d met.
When the buzz of the needle stopped, Dare gestured me over with a nod of his jutting chin.
“Hey.” He cocked his head. “What do you think about some deep red accents?”
Did Dare want me to comment? I grinned at Mark, a guy about my age, who assessed his work in the mirror.
“Show me where,” Mark said.
Dare grabbed my hand, using my finger to trace Mark’s skin in the area Dare proposed adding the crimson accent. A zing of electricity shot from where his hand touched mine and ricocheted through my body in a distracting, haphazard path, but it managed to hit all my important bits.
Both guys gazed toward me.
“What do you think?” Mark’s boyish smile gave him just the right combination of sexy, not that my bits responded to him, at all.
Nope, my body lit up like a winning pinball machine for Dare. Not going there, I reminded myself.
“It’d feel more like a fighting piece with the red, so it depends on the vibe you want.” I struggled to keep my words steady despite Dare’s distracting touch.
He still hadn’t released the finger he’d hijacked.
“Badass—that’s the vibe I need.” Mark traced the same place I had a moment before.
I attempted to shake off the spell Dare created. “I would go for the red, then. You’ll be a total badass.”
Dare’s mouth twitched in a hint of a grin, and I imagined kissing his seductive lips. Sucking in another breath, I moved away before I lost my impulse control.
It wasn’t a problem he appeared to share. He finished the outline with a quick precision I respected. Mark waved away the offer of a break, so Dare started filling in the design. Intense concentration lined his brow and tightened his lips. He rarely spoke, working faster than any other artist I’d seen. The front door jingled and woke me from my trance.
“That’ll be Mary.” Zayn waggled his eyebrows. “She’s wanting a boob piece, you can come watch me.”
“She might want privacy.” I rolled my eyes at him. “And your undivided attention.”
“Well, that’s true.” He followed me to the front and welcomed his client.
As I thought, she batted long lashes at Zayn, dressed in tight-fitting jeans I wished I could wear and full makeup. She was angling for more than good customer service, and by the spark in his eye, she might just get lucky.
The rest of the day was on fast-forward between the clients and trying to figure out how the shop ran. I only saw the guys a few times as they brought customers to me for check-out.
Dare appeared next to me before closing time. “Lock the door.” Dare surprised me. Why did he want me to lock up early?
I frowned up at him, pausing from counting my drawer. “We’ve got twenty minutes until close.”
He stood arms crossed, waiting for me to do as told, I guess. I strode over and flipped the sign before turning the two dead bolts on the door.
“Closing is simple, we clean our areas before we go, you make the front decent, close the register, lock up the deposit, and you’re done.”
This was much easier than my last job where I’d had to do the final sanitizing on all the stations and clean the floors. I understood why shops had to be more sterile than hospitals and hadn’t minded the work of sanitizing, but not being responsible for the workroom was a huge relief. I’d be out of here in minutes, not hours, which was great tonight because the first day kicked my ass. Totally.
“Z is already at Blue’s drinking beer, I’m headed over. You joining us?” The words were totally innocent, but his sexy undertone asked an entirely different question.
“Not tonight.” I laughed. “I feel like I’ve been run over.”
He frowned and parted his lips.
“It’s good, I just need a day or two to get the routine down and let my brain catch up. “But, I’m ready to hit my bed tonight.”
The worst thing to say, ever.
A grin spread with a slow sexiness that hit me hard right in my already overstimulated parts. Dare might be a walking sex god who would enchant me if I didn’t leave fast. I hurried to the safe with the deposit, hoping he wouldn’t see the blush burning my cheeks.
“Next time,” he called to my back, a laugh in his voice.
I trudged up the stairs, tired from the ten-hour day. I hoped I wasn’t expected to work all the hours the shop was open. Why hadn’t I asked Dare? Instead, I’d almost invited him to my bed. Way to hold strong, Braham.
Inside, I kicked off my boots, undressed and slipped between the covers of my fifty-dollar blow-up mattress from Walmart. The mattress welcomed me like a million-dollar bed tonight. I fell asleep in seconds.
The next morning my alarm blared, and sun hit me in the face. Shit. I don’t want to wake up.
I groaned and smacked the alarm. My body ached, not from work yesterday, but in sexual frustration. All night, I’d dreamed of the sexy biker, but dating the boss was one screwup I planned not to repeat. Too messy. My job was too good to lose for a nice ass and the bluest eyes on earth.
I stepped into the hot shower and steam enveloped me.
Dare pulled tight on the knot binding my ankles. He’d created a maze of ropes across my torso, firm but not tight. When I moved, the ropes slid across my skin, my nipples. I arched back, unable to resist the sensations. He positioned me with my ass in the air and secured my hands to the bed in front of me before he fingered me.
In the shower, the images played over again in my mind while my fingers traveled to my pussy. The hot water beat on my sensitive breasts, my fingers plucked with purpose, and I climaxed, remembering the intense orgasm from my dream. Panting, I leaned against the wall. One day, only one day, and he’d invaded my dreams.
Between the long shower and fitful night, my morning routine took longer. Unable to speed up despite three cups of java, I managed to take almost an hour on my normal thirty-minute routine. I’d just picked up my trail of clothes from the night before when I glanced at the clock.
Damn. It was five minutes until noon, I was beyond late by my standards.
I almost ran out of the apartment and down the stairs, hurrying to hit the code and get set up for the day. Thankfully, our first appointment came in at two.
I wal
ked in to foreign voices, and stopped a minute before I called out, “It’s Lila, the new girl.”
“Damn, girl, thought we’d have to open. You always late?” A gnarled guy well past thirty stared at me with beady eyes—snake eyes.
“Weasel, lay off the new girl, you old goat.” A Hispanic-looking guy with bulging muscles leaned against the doorway. “I’m Rock, the ornery one is Weasel and his old lady Angel is piercing a chick now.”
“Lila.” I frowned, worried I’d messed up already, missed an appointment, not even two days into my new job. “Great to meet y’all.”
Weasel growled and turned back to the work area, so I moved up front, and Rock followed.
“Don’t mind Weasel and Angel, they’re always sour.” Rock laughed. “I got enough sweetness to make up for them both.” He winked at me.
I laughed and scoured the books. “Did I miss the appointment?” I bit my lip.
“Nah, Angel called me this morning saying a girlfriend of hers needed a piercing, so I came in with them.” He still grinned. “You settled in?”
Don’t miss
Enough by Jade Chandler.
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Copyright © 2016 by Jade Chandler
Author Note
I have been writing about the strong, sexy bikers of the Jericho Brotherhood for five years. These six books have taught me so much about writing. Get Away allowed me to revisit some of my first hero and heroines. Dare and Lila, Rock and Avery, and Jericho and Marr from my first three books (from the Jericho Brotherhood series) all make an appearance in this one. I enjoyed catching up with those characters again.
Acknowledgments
I want to thank Harlequin, Carina Press, and Angela James for seeing the potential in the Jericho Brotherhood and Brotherhood Bonds. My editors have all been wonderful and I appreciate learning from each of them. I want to give a special shout-out to my agent and cheerleader Jessica Waterson for all her advice and guidance through this process. Thank you to my friends, family and especially my critique partners who have helped me as I wrote each book and made me a better person.
To my readers, I give the biggest thanks of all. When you read my books, they come alive and the characters live again and again. There is no greater joy for a writer than to share her stories with others, so thank you for allowing me so much joy!
Also available from Jade Chandler
and Carina Press
Jericho Brotherhood Series
Enough
Release
Deny
Brotherhood Bonds Series
Bail Out
Shake Down
About the Author
Jade Chandler lives in the Midwest with her family and pets. She has always loved romance books, and now gets to follow her passion of writing romances, too. When she isn’t at the computer, typing new stories, she is enjoying life and creating memories with her family and friends. Be sure to visit her at jadechandler.com.
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ISBN-13: 9781488030642
Get Away
Copyright © 2019 by Jade Chandler
All rights reserved. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this ebook on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher, Harlequin Enterprises Limited, 22 Adelaide St. West, 40th Floor, Toronto, Ontario M5H 4E3, Canada.
All characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all incidents are pure invention.
This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
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Get Away Page 27
